Sanctus Bruno, qui cognominatur Bonifacius, archepiscopus et monachus XI suae conversionis anno in confinio Rusciae et Lituae a paganis capite plexus cum suis XVIII, VII Id. Martii petiit coelos. Excerpt from the Annales Quenlinbergensis. wikipedia There it is, the nearly thousand-year-old first reference to Lithuanians, made in passing while describing the martyrdom of Bruno of [...]
Continue reading about Lithuania contemplates extreme makeover, pt. 2 of 3
The news broke late last week, and was spun in two different ways to two different news audiences. In lietuviams.com, reprinting an article from Delfi, Mindaugas Jackevičius wrote with his opening sentence that “Lietuva – drąsi šalis.” The marketing program that decided on this version of Lithuania also recommended that Lithuania change its English name, [...]
Continue reading about Lithuania contemplates extreme makeover, pt. 1 of 3
Kamarausko ‘Vilnius Synagogue’ (Wikipedia) I first heard of the situation regarding Dariaus Udrio resignation from LALB about a week ago. I was sad that he felt the need to resign, but I was more frustrated about the responses to his resignation, both in private emails forwarded to me and in public arenas. Once I saw [...]
After a day spent learning about 20th Century German history, my friends and I decided to lighten things up with a jaunt through the Tiergarten in Berlin, on our way to the Reichstag building in the summer of 2003. Rather surprisingly, while cutting across the heavily wooded space, we came upon a two Red Army [...]
I certainly was not expecting to write about this subject in response to last month’s article about the role of the trispalvė in the official workings of the Republic of Lithuania, but Marius brought it up in a comment, and Auksė followed up on it, and it’s become a sort of foundational point on which [...]
Nothing sets off an identity crisis like a millennial jubilee! Lithuania continues to play the role of jittery bride in the run up to the celebrations of 2009. First, we’ve had the problems over the question of why citizens of the Republic Lithuania must be citizens of the Republic of Lithuania alone (the propagandized diaspora [...]
As I was leaving LT Days last year, a guy came up to me and got on my case about the shirt I was wearing, which, against the field of a giant red star, featured Proudhon‘s slogan, “Property is theft” in 12 different languages. I don’t remember precisely what the fellow said—but it was critical [...]
Continue reading about The hammer and sickle is NOT the swastika